Psalm 96:8 O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth.
Remember Who Did What
What should you give God? We talk about giving God our youth, our time, our money, and our life. But what does God lack? What can you give God that God needs? It is good for you to remember that God doesn’t need you; God loves you. There is a difference.
God does not lack anything by not having me except that God loves me. That is an amazing thing. Most people we love, we also need in some way, so there may be some selfish motive attached to our love. Not with God. God loves us apart from any merit of our own. It is about Who He is, not so much about who we are.
What an amazing thing in Psalm 96:7 when it says, “Give unto the LORD, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength.” Now how in the world could I give God glory and strength? Does He lack strength or honor? No, but I am to give these things to Him nonetheless.
Verse 8 says, “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts. O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.” Now when we talk about giving God things like strength, we are talking about ascribing them to Him. We write it down that it belongs to Him already.
We also attribute these things to God. We give Him the tribute of acknowledging Who He is. It is not as if we can give God strength. It is that we glorify Him by acknowledging what He already has. In other words, to praise God is to remember Who did what.
So many times, we count God out of our lives, and we take the credit for what God has done. Notice the word, “due.” Psalm 96:8 says, “Give unto the LORD the glory due his unto his name.” In other words, this is something that we owe Him.
We are to give Him weight. Oftentimes in the Old Testament, the word “honor” is translated from a word that means “to be weighty” or “to give weight to.” For example, we might say, “The President of the United States carries a lot of weight.” We are to give God the recognition that is due unto Him. That is something we steal when we do not recognize God’s working in our lives.
So what can we give God? Essentially, the only thing you can give God that God has not given you first is gratitude. God may say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” but God doesn’t owe us thanks. We owe Him thanks. We need to ascribe, attribute, and give to Him all the attributes due His name. We need to give Him credit because He alone is the One Who is worthy of it.